Source: The Economic Times, Bangalore Edition, Dated: 22^nd Nov 2007

TutorVista buys Edurite to expand reach

SERIAL entrepreneur K Ganesh-led online tutoring servicescompany TutorVista.com has acquired educational content firm Edurite for an undisclosed sum. The company has set up a subsidiary - TutorVista Education India - which will include Edurite and cater to the domestic market.

K Ganesh, CEO of TutorVista told ET that the 100% stake transaction is a cash and stock deal. "We will now join resources under TutorVista Education India to provide online and offline tutorial services across the country," he said.

Edurite Technologies is an eight year-old Bangalore-based educational content company started by Prof Jawahar, director - PES Institutions and G S Ravi.

The company provides content to over 800 schools and over 1 lakh home users in the K12 segment. It employs about 120 people and 150 external teachers as subject matter experts. Incidentally, Edurite has been a content provider for TutorVista for the last two years.

The subsidiary is now planning to foray into brick and mortar model of tutoring. "Our plan is to set up 300 tutoring centres in metros and Class B cities across India under the brand - Edurite - in the next 24 months. By March 2008, we will have 50 centres in Karnataka and one other state. They will provide tutoring services for students for local state board examinations," said Srikanth B Iyer, president of Edurite Technologies, who will take over as CEO of the new subsidiary. Each centre, mostly franchisees, will have capacity to cater to 300-350 students.

Mr Ganesh said that TutorVista Education India is looking to raise funds of $15-20 million for its expansion plans in the next 3-6 months. The parent company has so far raised over $15 million in VC funding from the likes of Sequioa Capital India, Lightspeed Ventures and Manipal Group.

The firm is also looking at catering to students in the KG (kindergarden) to grade 2 segment and middle school level. It will also have English learning centres for improving employability among people at its centres. Mr Ganesh said that these forays could be either organic or through acquistions.

Source: Times of India, Bangalore Edition, Dated: 22^nd Nov 2007

TutorVista acquires Edurite Technologies

Bangalore: City-based online tutoring firm, Tutor Vista has acquired Edurite Technologies, another company that operates in the e-learning space. The size of this cash and stock deal was not revealed.

The combined entity, TutorVista Education India will open over 300 tuition centres in metros and Tier-II cities across the country in two years. By March 2008, it will open 50 centres in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu or NCR. To be set up at an average investment of Rs 15 lakh, each of these 2,000 sq.ft tuition centres will accommodate upto 400 students of class 9 to 12.

"In the next couple of quarters we will raise upto $20 million to fuel further expansions. We will also introduce worksheets for math, english and environmental science for pre-high school students in India. Our goal is to make education affordable to the bottom of the pyramid," said K Ganesh, founder and CEO of TutorVista.

Sequoia Capital India, LightSpeed Ventures and Manipal Group together have already invested $15 million in the company.